Lunch business

A takeaway owner was recently fined £2000 plus £450 costs, after a customer found shards of a broken light bulb in his kebab.  Investigating officers from the London Borough of Enfield’s environmental health team discovered that a light bulb had accidentally broken whilst being changed and glass fragments had fallen into dishes in a hot display cabinet.

The assessments were conducted on self nominated premises and the critical criteria on which the analysis of small espresso coffee was based is as follows: Required liquid volume:- 25-30ml, including good crema; Acceptable extraction time:- 20-30 secs; Temperature of drink:- 65°C best, 63-67°C acceptable. Over half those assessed failed on the above criteria alone, with 47% due to under extraction whilst over extraction accounted for 7% of those who didn’t reach the desired BSA standards.

More than three billion sandwiches are bought across all outlets each year, which is estimated to be worth a staggering £6bn by the British Sandwich Association (BSA). Chicken is way ahead in the popularity stakes for a filling accounting for around 30% of all commercially made sandwiches, but the BSA admits other fillings such as egg and ham have gained ground in the last year. Flavours, meanwhile, are getting bolder and more inspirational.

After two years of planning and restoring, The Attendant opened its doors on February 18th and according to founder Pete Tomlinson, the response has been incredible. But when acquiring it Tomlinson, along with business partner Ben Russell, knew they had their hands full with the project.

The popularity of high quality drinking chocolate is currently booming. As consumers are becoming more aware of single-origin chocolate and its intense quality, it is creating a real opportunity for coffee shop and café owners to up the ante and provide customers with a hot chocolate experience that will keep customers returning, and provide attractive profit potential too: What are the latest trends in chocolate?

New ideas come from understanding the needs of consumers and operators, and making products that fit their agenda whether it is, for example, about value for money, health or convenience. It needs careful analysis and trialling before launch, bearing in mind that the chances of success is regularly reported to be only two out of 10 launches. Grab and go to eat on the move is one of the most buoyant sectors of the market and the concepts built specifically for it are growing.

Tell me about your background I began my professional life with McDonald’s Restaurants as an hourly employee and turned that into a 25-year career. I worked in diverse areas of the business including operations, human resources and labour relations, training and development, site development in the United States, Western Europe, and Latin America.  

Nick is the founder of the Harris + Hoole coffee shops, which he runs along with his Australian siblings Laura and Andrew. The trio secured financial backing from Tesco, in the form of a non-controlling investment, to launch the new high-quality coffee proposition in 2012. Before establishing Harris + Hoole, the Tolleys founded Taylor St Baristas, an independent coffee brand with nine branches in central London. How has your business benefited from the Tesco backing?

One category bucking the trends is out of home hot beverages. Thanks to people seeing a daily cuppa as an affordable treat, coffee shops are booming. Out of home coffee, tea and hot chocolate continues to be irresistible, with the latter heralded as the ‘dark horse’ of the trio. In March, foodservice consultancy Horizons reported in its Ones to Watch survey that emerging coffee brands had shown a 132% growth rate in the number of outlets over the past 12 months.